Foldable sofa sleepers having a pivotally interconnected head, body, intermediate and foot sections movable between a fully folded or retracted position within a chair or sofa frame and an extended unfolded position for use as a bed are well known in the art as exemplified, for example, by U.S. Pat. No. 5,305,479. Generally, such sofa sleepers contain cushions which cover and hide the folded bed when the chair or sofa is used as a seating surface. And when the bed is unfolded, those cushions are simply removed and placed to the side. But, such sofa sleepers or combination chairs and foldable beds are relatively large items of furniture which are not suitable for use in small apartments, trailers or locations of very limited space. It has therefore been an objective of this invention to provide a foldable bed which may be combined with an item of furniture, which item of furniture has a much smaller footprint or smaller surface area than conventional sofa sleepers or chair/sleeper combinations, but which may still hide and contain a foldable sleeper bed.
Still another object of this invention has been to provide a foldable sleeper bed which may be contained within a completely enclosed item of furniture, such as an enclosed coffee table, ottoman or desk and which, when unfolded, does not require the removal of cushions or other portions of the item of furniture to enable the bed to be unfolded and used as a sleeping surface.